Implosion Symmetry Research Articles

Saturation of multi-laser beams laser-plasma instabilities from stochastic ion heating

Cross-beam energy transfer (CBET) has been used as a tool on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) since the first energetics experiments in 2009 to control the energy deposition in ignition hohlraums and tune the implosion symmetry. As large amounts of power are transferred between laser beams at the entrance holes of NIF hohlraums, the presence of many overlapping beat waves can lead to stochastic ion heating in the regions where laser beams overlap [P. Michel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 195004 (2012)]. This increases the ion acoustic velocity and modifies the ion acoustic waves’ dispersion relation, thus reducing the plasma response to the beat waves and the efficiency of CBET. This pushes the plasma oscillations driven by CBET in a regime where the phase velocities are much smaller than both the electron and ion thermal velocities. CBET gains are derived for this new regime and generalized to the case of multi ion species plasmas.

NIF Ignition Campaign Target Performance and Requirements: Status May 2012

The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) on the National Ignition Facility plans to use an indirectly driven spherical implosion to assemble and ignite a mass of D-T fuel. The NIC is currently in the process of conducting a variety of experiments using surrogate targets, meant to define various aspects of the future ignition experiment. Four platforms have been developed: Re-emit targets measure the symmetry of the early part of the pulse, keyhole targets measure the strength and time of shocks, symcap targets measure integrated performance and implosion symmetry, and ConA targets measure implosion velocity and ablator performance. Also, cryogenic layered capsules similar to the ignition design, containing a layer of either D-T or hydrodynamically equivalent tritium-rich fuel, are being fielded. These integrate the laser and target adjustments made during the tuning experiments and test the integrated performance with data on RhoR, temperature, yield, and other diagnostics. In an activity ongoing with these experiments, the point design for ignition is updated and modified as appropriate. This paper summarizes the target designs that are being used for the campaign, the results of the experimental campaign to date, and how the campaign has affected requirements for the eventual ignition experiment.

Symmetry tuning with megajoule laser pulses at the National Ignition Facility

Experiments conducted at the National Ignition Facility using shaped laser pulses with more than 1 MJ of energy have demonstrated the ability to control the implosion symmetry under ignition conditions. To achieve thermonuclear ignition, the low mode asymmetries must be small to minimize the size of the hotspot. The symmetry tuning experiments use symmetry capsules, “symcaps”, which replace the DT fuel with an equivalent mass of CH to emulate the hydrodynamic behavior of an ignition capsule. The x-ray self-emission signature from gas inside the capsule during the peak compression correlates with the surrounding hotspot shape. By tuning the shape of the self-emission, the capsule implosion symmetry can be made to be “round.” In the experimental results presented here, we utilized crossbeam energy transfer [S. H. Glenzer, et al., Science 327, 1228 (2010)] to change the ratio of the inner to outer cone power inside the hohlraum targets on the NIF. Variations in the ratio of the inner cone to outer cone power affect the radiation pattern incident on the capsule modifying the implosion symmetry.

Variations of implosion asymmetry with hohlraum length and time in indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion

In order to achieve the high density compression in laser indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion, the implosion symmetry and hohlraum radiation uniformity are strictly required. To study the variations of implosion asymmetry with hohlraum length and time, three kinds of hohlraum lengths are adopted in experiment. X-ray emission from capsule fuel is measured by an X-ray framing camera. Based on measured capsule compression process and ellipticity variation, it is preliminarily judged that the medium hohlraum of 1700 μm long is the closest to implosion symmetry demand of Shenguang Ⅲ prototype laser facility. Time-resolved implosion asymmetry is derived from a simplified analytic model, in which used is the time-resolved hohlraum radiation nonuniformity derived from a view-factor code. The derived results of the time-resolved implosion asymmetry are basically in agreement with experimental results. The physical mechanism for how hohlraum radiation nonuniformity evolution induces the variations of implosion asymmetry with hohlraum length and time is analyzed.

Symmetry issues in Directly Irradiated Targets

In direct drive Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF), the typical laser beam to laser beam angle is around 30 ◦ . This fact makes the study of the irradiation symmetry a genuine 3D problem. In this paper we use the three dimensional version of the MULTI hydrocode to assess the symmetry of such ICF implosions. More specifically, we study a shock-ignition proposal for the Laser-Megajoule facility (LMJ) in which two of the equatorial beam cones are used to implode and precompress a spherical capsule (the reference capsule of HiPER project) made of 0.59mg of pure Deuterium-Tritium mixture. The symmetry of this scheme is analysed and optimized to get a design inside the operating limits of LMJ. The studied configuration has been found essentially axial-symmetric, so that the use of 2D hydrocodes would be appropriate for this specific situation.

基于中子飞行时间法的ICF内爆热斑离子温度诊断技术

Ion temperature of implosion hotspot is a very important parameter for inertial confinement fusion. It reflects the energy level of the hotspot, and it is very sensitive to implosion symmetry and implosion speed. ICF implosion hotspot ion temperature diagnostic techniques based on neutron time-of-flight method were described. A neutron TOF spectrometer was developed using a ultrafast plastic scintillator as the neutron detector. Time response of the spectrometer has 1.1 ns FWHM and 0.5 ns rising time. TOF spectrum resolving method based on deconvolution and low pass filter was illuminated. Implosion hotspot ion temperature in low neutron yield and low ion temperature condition at Shenguang-Ⅲ facility was acquired using the diagnostic techniques.

Asymmetric directly driven capsule implosions: Modeling and experiments—A requirement for the National Ignition Facility

Direct-drive experiments at the University of Rochester's OMEGA laser [T. R. Boehly, R. L. McCrory, C. P. Verdon et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 44, 35 (1999)] have been performed to prototype eventual campaigns on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [E. I. Moses and C. R. Wuest, Fusion Sci. Technol. 43, 420 (2003)] to investigate the mixing of target materials. Spherical-implosion targets with equatorial defects have been irradiated with polar direct drive, a requirement for direct-drive experiments at NIF. The physics question addressed by these results is whether simulations can match data on 0th-order hydrodynamics and implosion symmetry, the most basic implosion features, with and without the defect. The successful testing of hydrodynamic simulations leads to better designs for experiments and guides accurate planning for polar-direct-drive-ignition studies on the NIF platform.

Advances in compact proton spectrometers for inertial-confinement fusion and plasma nuclear science

Compact wedge-range-filter proton spectrometers cover proton energies ∼3-20 MeV. They have been used at the OMEGA laser facility for more than a decade for measuring spectra of primary D(3)He protons in D(3)He implosions, secondary D(3)He protons in DD implosions, and ablator protons in DT implosions; they are now being used also at the National Ignition Facility. The spectra are used to determine proton yields, shell areal density at shock-bang time and compression-bang time, fuel areal density, and implosion symmetry. There have been changes in fabrication and in analysis algorithms, resulting in a wider energy range, better accuracy and precision, and better robustness for survivability with indirect-drive inertial-confinement-fusion experiments.

Direct drive implosion experiments on SGIII prototype laser facility: Assessing energy coupling efficiency and implosion symmetry

Direct drive implosion experiments were conducted on SGIII prototype laser facility. From the time resolved x-ray images, the bright ring and the central bright spot are observed. The radial velocity of the convergent bright ring indicates the shell velocity, and the times when the central bright spot is first seen and becomes most intensive indicate the times of shock convergence and later stagnation, respectively. Radiation hydrodynamic simulations were carried out by changing laser energy deposition factors. When the simulated results are brought close to the measured ones, it is found that the energy coupling efficiency is around 70%. The implosion symmetry is indicated by the core x-ray emission pattern which is pancake when viewing from the equator, and splits into several bright spots when viewing close to the pole. A simple model is developed to understand this asymmetry. It is speculated that the observed implosion asymmetry can be attributed to the laser arrangement which is originally designed for indirect drive experiments. Further improvements of energy coupling efficiency and implosion symmetry in future experiments can be achieved by optimizing target design and laser arrangement.

Model analysis of experiments of implosion symmetry on Shenguang-Ⅱ and Shenguang-Ⅲ prototype laser facilities

The analysis and control of implosion symmetry of fuel capsule is one of the most important issues in inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and many experiments and simulations on it have been done. Here we use a simple model on implosion symmetry in ICF to analyze the best lengths of the hohlraum and distortions of capsule on Shenguang-Ⅱ and Shenguang-Ⅲ prototype laser facility. It is shown that the calculated best lengths agree with the ones obtained in experiment and the calculated capsule distortions are also close to experimental measurements. The validated model may give some references to the future experiments of implosion symmetry on Shenguang-Ⅲ laser facility.

Tuning indirect-drive implosions using cone power balance

We demonstrate indirect-drive implosion symmetry tuning in a vacuum hohlraum 6.6 mm in length and 3.56 mm in diameter with a CH capsule 6.38 μm in thickness and 1414 μm in diameter, scaled roughly 0.7 × from a National ignition facility (NIF) [E. Moses and C. R. Wuest, Fusion Sci. Technol. 47, 314 (2005)] The hohlraums have radiation drives of 117 ± 4 eV relevant to conditions for the first ∼1 ns of ignition experiments. By varying the relative ratio of the energy between inner and outer beam cones illuminating the hohlraum at OMEGA [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. the shape of the x-ray self-emission, and hence the shape of the emitting object, can be tuned from prolate to oblate. The second-order Legendre coefficient, used to characterize the shape, changes from a negative to a positive value at the time of peak x-ray emission during the implosion through the variation of the cone power balance. With the appropriate selection of the cone power balance, the implosion can be tuned to produce a spherical implosion. Using capsules with thicker walls, this technique can be extended to measure the drive symmetry at later times as the length of the drive pulse is increased [N. M. Hoffman et al., J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 112, 022075 (2008); N. M. Hoffman et al., Phys. Plasmas 3, 2022 (1996)].

Three-wavelength scheme to optimize hohlraum coupling on the National Ignition Facility

By using three tunable wavelengths on different cones of laser beams on the National Ignition Facility, numerical simulations show that the energy transfer between beams can be tuned to redistribute the energy within the cones of beams most prone to backscatter instabilities. These radiative hydrodynamics and laser-plasma interaction simulations have been tested against large-scale hohlraum experiments with two tunable wavelengths and reproduce the hohlraum energetics and symmetry. Using a third wavelength provides a greater level of control of the laser energy distribution and coupling in the hohlraum, and could significantly reduce stimulated Raman scattering losses and increase the hohlraum radiation drive while maintaining a good implosion symmetry.

Analysis of the National Ignition Facility ignition hohlraum energetics experiments

A series of 40 experiments on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [E. I. Moses et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 041006 (2009)] to study energy balance and implosion symmetry in reduced- and full-scale ignition hohlraums was shot at energies up to 1.3 MJ. This paper reports the findings of the analysis of the ensemble of experimental data obtained that has produced an improved model for simulating ignition hohlraums. Last year the first observation in a NIF hohlraum of energy transfer between cones of beams as a function of wavelength shift between those cones was reported [P. Michel et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056305 (2010)]. Detailed analysis of hohlraum wall emission as measured through the laser entrance hole (LEH) has allowed the amount of energy transferred versus wavelength shift to be quantified. The change in outer beam brightness is found to be quantitatively consistent with LASNEX [G. B. Zimmerman and W. L. Kruer, Comments Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 2, 51 (1975)] simulations using the predicted energy transfer when possible saturation of the plasma wave mediating the transfer is included. The effect of the predicted energy transfer on implosion symmetry is also found to be in good agreement with gated x-ray framing camera images. Hohlraum energy balance, as measured by x-ray power escaping the LEH, is quantitatively consistent with revised estimates of backscatter and incident laser energy combined with a more rigorous non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium atomic physics model with greater emissivity than the simpler average-atom model used in the original design of NIF targets.

A Freon-filled bubble chamber for neutron detection in inertial confinement fusion experiments

Neutron imaging is one of the main methods used in inertial confinement fusion experiments to measure the core symmetry of target implosions. Previous studies have shown that bubble chambers have the potential to obtain higher resolution images of the targets for a shorter source-to-target distance than typical scintillator arrays. A bubble chamber for neutron imaging with Freon 115 as the active medium was designed and built for the OMEGA laser system. Bubbles resulting from spontaneous nucleation were recorded. Bubbles resulting from neutron-Freon interactions were observed at neutron yields of 10(13) emitted from deuterium-tritium target implosions on OMEGA. The measured column bubble density was too low for neutron imaging on OMEGA but agreed with the model of bubble formation. The recorded data suggest that neutron bubble detectors are a promising technology for the higher neutron yields expected at National Ignition Facility.

Diagnosing indirect-drive inertial-confinement-fusion implosions with charged particles

High-energy charged particles are being used to diagnose x-ray-driven implosions in inertial-confinement fusion. Recent measurements with vacuum hohlraums have resulted in quantitative characterization of important aspects of x-ray drive and capsule implosions. Comprehensive data obtained from spectrally resolved, fusion-product self-emission and time-gated proton radiographs with unprecedented clarity reveal new and important phenomena. Several types of spontaneous electric fields differing by two orders of magnitude in strength are observed, the largest being on the order of one-tenth of the Bohr field (, where a0 is the Bohr radius). The hohlraum experiments demonstrate the absence of stochastic filamentary patterns and striations around the imploded capsule, a feature common to direct-drive implosions. The views of spatial structure and temporal evolution of spontaneous electromagnetic fields, plasma flows, implosion symmetry and dynamics provide insight into the physics of x-ray driven implosions. Potential applications for the National Ignition Facility are outlined.

Measuring symmetry of implosions in cryogenic Hohlraums at the NIF using gated x-ray detectors (invited)

Ignition of imploding inertial confinement capsules requires, among other things, controlling the symmetry with high accuracy and fidelity. We have used gated x-ray imaging, with 10 μm and 70 ps resolution, to detect the x-ray emission from the imploded core of symmetry capsules at the National Ignition Facility. The measurements are used to characterize the time dependent symmetry and the x-ray bang time of the implosion from two orthogonal directions. These measurements were one of the primary diagnostics used to tune the parameters of the laser and Hohlraum to vary the symmetry and x-ray bang time of the implosion of cryogenically cooled ignition scale deuterium/helium filled plastic capsules. Here, we will report on the successful measurements performed with up to 1.2 MJ of laser energy in a fully integrated cryogenics gas-filled ignition-scale Hohlraum and capsule illuminated with 192 smoothed laser beams. We will describe the technique, the accuracy of the technique, and the results of the variation in symmetry with tuning parameters, and explain how that set was used to predictably tune the implosion symmetry as the laser energy, the laser cone wavelength separation, and the Hohlraum size were increased to ignition scales. We will also describe how to apply that technique to cryogenically layered tritium-hydrogen-deuterium capsules.

Characterizing high energy spectra of NIF ignition Hohlraums using a differentially filtered high energy multipinhole x-ray imager

Understanding hot electron distributions generated inside Hohlraums is important to the national ignition campaign for controlling implosion symmetry and sources of preheat. While direct imaging of hot electrons is difficult, their spatial distribution and spectrum can be deduced by detecting high energy x-rays generated as they interact with target materials. We used an array of 18 pinholes with four independent filter combinations to image entire Hohlraums with a magnification of 0.87× during the Hohlraum energetics campaign on NIF. Comparing our results with Hohlraum simulations indicates that the characteristic 10-40 keV hot electrons are mainly generated from backscattered laser-plasma interactions rather than from Hohlraum hydrodynamics.

Simulating NIF laser-plasma interaction with multiple SRS frequencies

Understanding the energetics of a NIF ignition hohlraum is important to achieving ignition. Laser-plasma interactions (LPI) can reduce the radiation drive if backscatter occurs, and can also affect the hohlraum energetics by modifying the laser beam energy deposition which in turn can alter the implosion symmetry. The addition of a second SRS frequency to the modeling code pF3d can capture physics which would otherwise have been omitted. In the case of a wide or bi-modal SRS spectrum, this physics can be important. We discuss the modifications to the pF3d computational model, and exhibit its effect in a NIF ignition-relevant LPI simulation.

Sensitivity of capsule implosion symmetry due to laser beam imbalance in a scale 0.2 hot hohlraum at Omega

Results are shown from recent experiments at the Omega laser facility, using 40 Omega beams driving the hohlraum with 3 cones from each side and up to 19.5 kJ of laser energy. Beam phasing is achieved by decreasing the energy separately in each of the three cones, by 3 kJ, for a total drive energy of 16.5 kJ. This results in a more asymmetric drive, which will vary the shape of the imploded symmetry capsule core from round to oblate or prolate in a systematic and controlled manner. These results show the sensitivity of capsule implosion symmetry for implosions in "high temperature" (275 eV) hohlraums at Omega. Dante measurements confirmed the predicted peak drive temperatures of 275 eV. Implosion core time dependent x-ray images were obtained from framing camera data which show the expected change in symmetry due to beam imbalance and which also agree well with post processed hydro code calculations.

Symmetry tuning via controlled crossed-beam energy transfer on the National Ignition Facility

The Hohlraum energetics experimental campaign started in the summer of 2009 on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) [E. I. Moses et al., Phys. Plasmas 16, 041006 (2009)]. These experiments showed good coupling of the laser energy into the targets [N. Meezan et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 056304 (2010)]. They have also demonstrated controlled crossed-beam energy transfer between laser beams as an efficient and robust tool to tune the implosion symmetry of ignition capsules, as predicted by earlier calculations [P. Michel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 025004 (2009)]. A new linear model calculating crossed-beam energy transfer between cones of beams on the NIF has been developed. The model has been applied to the subscale Hohlraum targets shot during the National Ignition Campaign in 2009. A good agreement can be found between the calculations and the experiments when the impaired propagation of the laser beams due to backscatter is accounted for.